Channel Islanders

‘A Very Gallant Padre’ The Reverend Father Simon Stock Knapp, OCD, DSO, MC Temporary Chaplain to the Forces, 3rd Class Army Chaplains’ Department By Barrie H Bertram 20th April, 2012 1 Preamble: This is an account of the life and service of Father Simon Stock Knapp, who became a highly-respected and well-beloved army padre among those that he served with during both the Anglo-Boer (1899-1902) and Great (1914-1919) Wars, irrespective of their ranks. Readers are asked to note that it has been put together over a brief period of about two months, and as a result: • It is probably a little rambling due to a number of revisions made as more information emerged • Some of the information has been contradictory and in some instances it has not yet been possible to verify the accuracy. • The number of pictures are fewer in number than one would have liked. • As will be seen, Father Simon went by three names, and it would have been helpful to have bracketed their use in defined periods (1858-1873, 1873-1883 and 1883-1917). This was not possible because of the reference documents. • Time has not allowed a visit, as yet, to the National Archive at Kew to view his War Office File or the War Diaries of the 1st and 2nd Battalion, the Irish Guards. Doing so may not guarantee further information however. Notwithstanding these points, it is hoped that in producing this Draft account, it will do justice to a man who served God and his fellow men unselfishly in South Africa, France and Flanders. Barrie H Bertram Caton, Lancashire 20th April, 2012 2 Introduction: To many of the troops who trudged through Northern France and Flanders, it would seem that every other village’s name ended in ‘hem’, and it was with typically dark ‘Tommy’ humour, that three areas to the north and west of Poperinghe, which were allocated for the basing of Casualty Clearing Stations (CCS), quickly became known as Bandaghem, Dozinghem, and Mendinghem, with the word play being only too obvious. They were not villages, but their locations are still marked on maps today, sadly by the crosses which indicate that they are Commonwealth War Grave Commission (CWGC) cemeteries. They are the last resting places for those men whose injuries were so severe that it was impossible for the doctors, orderlies and nurses at the CCSs to treat them sufficiently enough to enable them to edge more closely to the French ports, by ambulance, barge or hospital train, for the boat journey back to ‘Blighty’ and the sophisticated medical facilities that were necessary for a hoped for recovery. Among those who lie in those cemeteries, there are a small number of Jerseymen. We can find Old Victorian, Captain Stuart Le Geyt Cutler in Dozinghem for example. He was an observer with the Royal Flying Corps, whose flimsy aircraft was most likely brought down by a German scout aircraft in the relentless air war above the Ypres Salient. Private Harold Single lies in nearby Bandaghem. According to a Jersey Evening Post entry it was stated that he had transferred from the Royal Navy to the Wiltshire Regiment. But, it forgot to add that neither the RN nor the Wiltshires knew of this arrangement! A pre-war regular, Corporal Henry De Ste Croix completes the picture. In his case, it appears from the 1911 Census that he was getting his knees brown in Mauritius! However, the war came, and with it a return to the UK from where he would soon head east again, this time to get his knees even browner at Gallipoli. Emerging with his life from that very unsuccessful campaign with his unit, the 2nd Battalion, the Hampshire Regiment and heading off to France and Flanders, he would succumb to injuries at Mendinghem in April, 1918. But, we return to Dozinghem where, in Plot II.C.1, Chaplain, 3rd Class, the Reverend Simon Stock Knapp, DSO, MC now lies. A highly decorated member of the Army Chaplains’ Department, Father Knapp had been the Roman Catholic (RC) Padre to the 2nd Battalion, the Irish Guards, for a period up to the 1st August, 1917 when he died of wounds. During a period of nearly three years, he had been awarded Distinguished Service Order (DSO), the Military Cross (MC), and also had been several times ‘Mentioned in Despatches’. He had been commemorated in the Jersey Roll of Honour that was published in late 1919, and the initial assumption was made that he had ministered in Jersey although it was soon discovered there was no evidence to support that, for nothing has been found of an association with the RC Church in Jersey. However, for a number of reasons, effort in researching him had not been expended until February of this year, even though a reference to him in a letter written by Edward, Prince of Wales concerning Kipling’s ‘My Boy Jack’ had been spotted in the Holts’ book of that name a few years aback. What then prompted this sudden flurry of research? It resulted from a talk that was to be given on the role of Army Chaplains at the North Lancashire WFA Branch in early March, 2012 by a former Padre, and it somehow seemed appropriate that one should have known more about the Father Simon and his potential Jersey links, or at least, have known the right questions to ask such that something might be learnt. But, as in many cases of other similar research, the process was convoluted with nothing appearing to be logical initially. However, thanks to a number of people, along with the 3 ‘usual’ sources, it has been possible to obtain a broad insight into Father Simon’s life, and which follows on the next few pages. The Penny Dropped – Very Slowly: The CWGC Register had been, as is normal, the starting point but neither Father Simon’s age was stated nor was there any ‘Additional Information’ such as his family details. However, it was highly likely that he was in his fifties when he died. Of the three Padres who had been awarded the Victoria Cross (VC) during the Great War, the Reverend Theodore Bayley Hardy, who had also been awarded the DSO and MC, was two days short of his 55th birthday when he had died at Rouen in 1918. Indeed, a Great War Forum contributor noted of Father Simon that: ‘He was not far shy of sixty when he died’, and if that statement was correct, it indicated that Father Simon was born in 1857 or 1858. Thus, the name of Simon Knapp, with or without the middle name of Stock, should have been appeared on one or more of the six Censuses from 1861 to 1911, and that some link to Jersey should have been obvious, or so the logic went! But, it was not! However, it was found that he had appeared numerous times in the London Electoral Register between 1896 and 1915, with his address given as 47 Church Street in Kensington. There were also a number of other Reverends shown as living there, and in 1915, for example, these included: • Alphonsus Brand • Ambrose Fatcher • Vincent McGuirk • Aloysius Jackson • Columba Casey Of that list of names, Ambrose Fatcher’s was the most familiar, as it had appeared on Father Simon’s Medal Index Card (MIC), and it had also shown Ambrose Fatcher’s address as 47 Church Street. But then, searching through the Probate Calendar for England and Wales, it was stated that Father Simon’s executor was a Reverend William Charles Fatcher. Armed with this new information, was it possible that William and Ambrose were the same man? So it proved when conducting further searches, a number of the London Electoral Registers also showed a William Fatcher living at 47 Church Street! And, on those occasions, at the same address there was a Reverend Francis Knapp! Given that ‘Ambrose = William’, it thus seemed logical that ‘Simon = Francis’, and there was an obvious answer for this. Both had belonged to an order, in their case, the Ordo Carmelitarum Discalceatorum (OCD) or the Order of Discalced Carmelites (ODC), within the RC Church where members assumed a saint’s name as a means of their being continually reminded of the need for the piety that was shown by ‘their’ saint. If any doubts had lingered with this conclusion, they were quickly dispelled, thanks, subsequently, to ‘googling’ 47 Church Street and finding the large Carmelite Church, designed by Sir Giles Scott, adjacent to it. Having replaced an earlier Pugin-designed one that had been wrecked by a German flying bomb in 1944, the present day Church is at the hub of the parish of ‘Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St Simon Stock’. Proof positive indeed! The Church is adjoined by a Carmelite Priory, and contact was made with a Father John Hughes who very kindly provided further information and photographs. 4 Father Simon Stock Knapp with brother priests at the Carmelite Priory, Kensington in 1896 (Courtesy: The Reverend Father John Hughes OCD) (Note: Incidentally, St Simon Stock was a 13th Century English saint, of whom more detail can be found on Wikipedia amongst other sources) The Missing Link: However, before that contact, it had been necessary for a return visit to the Censuses, this time to look for Francis Knapp, and in so doing, an element of success was achieved. Disregarded during the first search, because there was no Simon listed, there was a family listed as living in the parish of St Lawrence in Jersey at the time of the 1861 Census.

Load more